


Between

by MrProphet



Category: Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 15:12:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10699596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Between

Kayda's feet flared with constant, burning pain, her shoes and skin alike cut to bloody ribbons by the jagged, broken stone. Her throat was parched and the terrible burns on her back still throbbed, unhealing.

The Barrens Between were cold, the sky above her filled with dull, pitiless stars and lit by a yellowish, glowering moon. Ahead of Kayda a door rose up; another door, another world, another Hell. She knew not how long ago she had left Charn by the work of Princess Marila's sorcery, only that she had returned to find her world a blasted wasteland, and since wandered long between the worlds, running ever shorter of the powders which carried her from the Barrens to each world and back.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the last pinch of green powder. Too tired even to speak the ritual words, she flung the powder at the doorway, heedless of the necessary gestures and obeisances.

And the door opened.

Surprised, Kayda stumbled through and fell, exhausted, headlong onto deep, green grass, like the grass of Charn that had been in her childhood, before the War of Pride and the clash of sorcery. For a long time, Kayda lay in the sun. The aches seemed to seep from her body, she felt peace settle across her spirit, and in a whisper she blessed the cool grass and the warm sun in the name of the Forbidden God.

All at once, she felt the earth tremble beneath a heavy footfall and warm, soft breath across her back.

"Rise up, Last Daughter of Charn." The voice was rich and powerful, full of love and fury and majesty.

Trembling, Kayda rose to her knees. "Who are you?" she asked. "And... what is this place."

"I am he that you have named," he replied, "and this is your home."

And sure enough, as she looked around, Kayda saw that she was home, in the green fields of Charn, studded with gold and silver flowers beneath a sapphire sky. There was the brook where her brothers had fished, and there indeed were her brothers, and the farmhouse with soft smoke curling from the chimney.

"But this burned," Kayda whispered.

"In this country, nothing good is destroyed."

Kayda half-turned, but the light of the Forbidden God was too much for her to look on and she was left with only a momentary impression of wise, golden eyes and fierce jaws.

"Go to them, Last Daughter of Charn," the Forbidden God told her, and she ran to her family.


End file.
